The two-hour reading on position thirteen came back lower than Gorrak's notation book's printed minimum.
For eleven seconds, Zul'jinn allowed himself to consider that the trial had already failed.
Then Gorrak said, "It is moving. Slowly, but the gauge moved between my first reading and my second, thirty seconds apart."
"A failing bond does not move in the direction this one moved."
Zul'jinn took the gauge himself and confirmed it. The reading was below threshold but climbing.
The rate of climb was shallow compared to the void-compound bonds at the same elapsed time, but it was present and consistent. Vorra had been right that the manganese binder cured slowly. She had not said it did not cure.
He sent the two-hour reading south with a single line: below threshold, climbing, consistent rate. Full six-hour reading to follow.
The six hours passed with the rest of cycle two proceeding around position thirteen as though nothing unusual were happening there.
